Liquid crystal display devices are generally configured to include a liquid crystal cell and a pair of polarizing plates (a polarizing plate of light incident side and a polarizing plate of light emitting side) which are disposed to sandwich the liquid crystal cell. In usual liquid crystal display modes such as VA mode and IPS mode, the pair of polarizing plates are usually disposed in crossed Nicol arrangement. That is, the polarizing plates are disposed so that the absorption axes of the polarizing plates are oriented in approximately orthogonal to each other, whereby black color is displayed (light passage is blocked) in the absence of an electric field.
However, when such a liquid crystal display device is observed from a tilted direction, the absorption axes of the pair of polarizing plates may apparently form an angle that is greater than the right angle (an obtuse angle), which results in light leakage. That is, when the liquid crystal display device is observed from a tilted direction, the display of black color appears imperfect as compared with the display of black color when observed from the front direction. Thus, the contrast appearing on the liquid crystal display device when observed from a tilted direction may be lower than the contrast appearing on the liquid crystal display device when observed from the front direction.
In order to reduce such light leakage, a liquid crystal display device usually has, between the pair of polarizing plates, a phase difference plate for compensating for light leakage caused by these polarizing plates (this may be referred to hereinafter as the “polarizing plate compensation”). As means for realizing the polarizing plate compensation function, it has been suggested that a phase difference plate should be interposed between the pair of polarizing plates, wherein the phase difference plate has an in-plane refractive index nx along the retarded phase axis, an in-plane refractive index ny in an orthogonal direction thereto, and a refractive index nz in the thickness direction that meet the relationship of nx>nz>ny. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a phase difference plate which meets the relationship of 0<(nx−nz)/(nx−ny)<1, wherein the phase difference plate is obtained in a manner such that, when a resin film is stretched, a contractive film is attached to either one side or both sides of the resin film to form a multilayer body, and then the multilayer body is stretched under application of heat, to apply contractive force to the resin film in a direction orthogonal to the stretching direction thereof.